Focus turns to what students really learn

NEW academic standards will give special emphasis to learning outcomes.

NEW academic standards will give special emphasis to learning outcomes.

The higher education standards panel chaired by former vice-chancelllor Alan Robson is charged with advising the minister on the first set of national teaching and learning standards under the new regulatory regime.

Professor Robson said the panel had been looking at overlap between what they might recommend and what is already covered by threshold standards, such as provider standards.

"Teaching standards to do with process are pretty well covered (so) we'll be putting a lot more emphasis on learning outcomes,'' he said this week.

Professor Robson said the panel expected to have a set of standards ready to recommend to the minister some time next year.

"It's taking us a fair while because we've got to do a lot of consulting,'' he said.

The panel had to weigh a substantial body of existing work on academic standards.

It also had to consider the relationship between "non-threshold'' academic standards and threshold standards such as provider standards.

The latter are enforced directly by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

The field of research standards, which the panel has also been working on, was relatively less developed, Professor Robson said.